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The Simpson's Ride + A Little More
Today Ethan and I took a little trip over to Universal Studios for the sole purpose of riding The Simpson's Ride for our first time. We have never been known to wait in lines for over 30 minutes, but we decided today would be the exception. I knew that with the onset of summer vacation there could very possibly be more than an hour wait for Universal's newest thrill ride. This is why I secretly packed Ethan's Gameboy DS in my backpack (A great way to keep a little one busy in line unless you tap them at the wrong time and their game gets messed up). We arrived at Universal and our hopes of finding a non crowded park diminished as we parked in the parking garage to the right (We have ALWAYS parked in the garage to the left and have always thought the other garage was only used when the crowds got huge). Anyway, once we took the lengthy walk through the garage area and Citywalk to get to the Universal Studios side we were greeted with the best news. The sign at the front of the park stated that there was only a 15 minute wait for The Simpson's Ride! We took off at our best speed walking gait for the ride with bottled waters in hand. Here is our first tip of the day--- If you insist on visiting any of the theme parks at this time of year.... Bring your own bottled water in a small soft sided cooler! You will go broke buying water in the parks at $2.00+ a pop. We each took a bottle in with us and I had six bottles in a small sandwich cooler attached to my backpack (By the end of the day we had finished those and bought a large bottle in Island's of Adventure to split for the walk out to the truck). It may seem like a hassle to bring your own water with you, but I personally would rather spend $4.99 on a case of Publix spring water than almost $20 on eight bottles at the park. Back to the visit. We ran across Alex the Lion and the psychotic penguins of Madagascar fame along the way. As we turned the corner to where pretty blah exterior of the Back to the Future ride used to be we were visually assaulted by the colors of The Simpson's Ride and the huge Krusty the Clown head at it's entrance. I would like to take a moment to explain something. As I have gotten older I seem to suffer from vertigo (You know, bouts of dizziness and feeling like everything is spinning). This keeps me off of most roller coasters (Loops do me in) and pretty much anything that spins a great deal. Motion rides (Like Back to the Future, Jimmy Neutron, Star Tours, and Wild Arctic) I can fight through when the need arises (Like one of my kid's wanting to go on them). I had already made a deal with my body that if I could make it through The Simpson's Ride then there would be a treat at the end of the day. So now back once again to the ride. The wait once we arrived at the ride was 35 minutes. Over our limit on a normal day, but much less than we expected today. The wait in the line was tempered by many large Simpson's embedded flatscreens and more than a few large fans that kept the temperature almost bearable. By the time we arrived at the waiting room we had only been in line for 30 minutes. Let me explain the concept of The Simpson's Ride. Once you enter the ride you are now at Krustyland, a theme park created by Krusty the Clown. It turns out that one of his ex-employee's is a bit miffed at being an ex-employee and is seeking revenge on Krusty and the family the helped in the ex-ing of his employment. During a short video shown while you are waiting for your turn in the waiting room Krusty warns everyone that said ex-employee has escaped from custody and could possibly be near Krustyland. Then in the video shows ex-employee on the premises. Now it is time to enter the room into which you will board your vehicle. For those the remember the Back to the Future Ride, much will seem familiar. The theme has been fully redone, but it is the same ride. I will not go into more detail about the ride except to say that my worst fears came true as it started us off on a virtual roller coaster and off we went. I did have to look away from the screen a few times to keep my lunch in the proper place, but Ethan absolutely loved the ride. He was ready to get back in line, but I somehow managed to persuade him to get on with our park visit without letting him know how queasy my stomach was. Then it was off to our favorite place to go on the Universal Studios side.
If you head over to the Woody Woodpecker Kidzone and walk to the back of the area there is a large water-based fun area called Curious George Goes to Town. Now if you can navigate through this area without getting soaked there is a two level room filled with air powered guns that shoot soft fist sized balls all over the place. A great place to get out of the heat and you can easily spend thirty minutes gathering up the balls and shooting them at all the other people gathering balls. I was able to pull Ethan away from there after about twenty minutes and we headed over to the Woody Woodpecker Nuthouse Coaster. I can actually handle this coaster without thinking I might die. We then worked our way to the front of the park on our way to Island's of Adventure. As we walked by Shrek 4-D and Jimmy Neutron's Nicktoon Blast we noticed the wait times were really short and hit Jimmy Neutron, but by the time we finished up there the wait time for Shrek had skyrocketed. Jimmy Neutron is another motion ride, but quite a bit more tame than The Simpson's. You get to visit all of your favorite Nick Toons during the ride and I have not taken anyone yet that has not enjoyed the ride. After a quick check of the time we took the long walk over to Island's of Adventure since Ethan wanted to ride Popeye and Bluto's Bilge Rat Barges. We started off with a walk through Seuss Landing and a ride on One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish for a quick chance to cool off as the fish you ride in go through several water sprayers. Ethan also wanted to go over and ride The Flying Unicorn roller coaster since it could possibly disappear when The Lost Continent area gets a total makeover Harry Potter style later this year. After getting in line for The Flying Unicorn Ethan decided it was way too hot to wait in line and we kept moving in a direction that would hopefully give us a good soaking. Now when the Universal planning gods finish up with the new area I sincerely hope they leave a couple of attractions from The Lost Continent. First and smallest is the mystic fountain found in the middle of this section. It is always worth a stop just to listen to the voice from the fountain interact with the people around it. If you have not done this, then make an effort to stop by it before it is possibly gone forever. The second attraction is actually a restaurant. The Enchanted Oak Tavern is a landmark of the park and a great place to grab a bite to eat. So now we were on our way to hopefully ride the Jurassic Park River Adventure, but it was not to be as the wait was forty minutes (We were kind of on a tight schedule as we were meeting my mom for dinner in the park before she started her shift). The is one ride that neither of us has ever been on and that is the Pteranodon Flyers. There has not been a time we have visited that the wait has been under an hour and we want so bad to go on this ride. Today was not our day as the wait was over an hour once again. What to you do on this ride that everyone wants to ride it?? I really hope it is worth the wait when we do get to ride it. So off we went on our way to Popeye and a sure soaking. Guess what? Another hour long wait. There was an even longer wait for Dudley Do-Right's Ripsaw Falls, so it looked as though we struck out on getting a good soaking today. A little dissapointed, we headed through Marvel Super Hero Island and saw that The Amazing Adventures of Spiderman had a pretty short wait and we went in. This was another ride that neither of us had been on before and we had no clue as to what to expect. Well the 3-D glasses let us know that it would be visual and then we got into the ride vehicles. I can say that I did not look up very much during the ride as we spun and turned and spun some more while Spidey's villian buddies did their best to do us in. We survived the encounter with these cartoon freaks, but it was a rough ride. Even Ethan said that he didn't want to go on it again and I was pretty well shot after that. It was then time to go meet my mom over in Seuss Landing at Circus McGurkus, so we stumbled that way. We were able to gather ourselves enough to have a pleasant meal with my mom and the food at Circus McGurkus is really good for counter service. Then it was time to ride The High in the Sky Seuss Trolley Train Ride before we left the park. Oh yes a quick stop at the Island Market and Export Candy Shoppe was necessary for some sweets and a couple of large bottled waters for our walk to the parking garage.
Photos from today
Ethan Says
The Simpson's Ride was fun, but made me a little sick. We went to the ball room and shot lots of people. At Islands of Adventure we went on One Fish Two Fish to cool off. I can't wait until I can go on Dueling Dragons. It was too hot to wait in line for The Flying Unicorn. All of the other lines were too long except for Spider Man. It made my stomach even more sick than The Simpson's Ride and I will not go on it again. We met my Ya Ya for dinner and then went on The High in the Sky Seuss Trolley Train Ride. I got a big sugar straw on the way out. Then we went to Bass Pro Shops to get on some big boats. Then we went to The Fresh Market for dessert on our way home.
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